ATF Acting Director B. Todd Jones on Tuesday advanced his bid to be the embattled bureau’s first confirmed director in seven years, telling a Senate panel he was committed to raising the profile of “an agency in distress.’’ With just over 5,000 employees and a $1.1 billion budget, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and …

Senators from Washington, Oregon and California, in a letter to President Obama, are seeking to preempt a huge proposed mining project in Alaska that would be located between two prime salmon spawning streams of North America’s premier commercial and sport salmon fishery. “The Pebble Mine would be one of the largest hard rock mines …

Consumed by the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre for most of his first six months in the Senate, Democrat Chris Murphy on Monday signaled that he would be willing to consider minor concessions when it comes to universal background checks for firearms purchases if it would help resuscitate federal gun control legislation. Murphy, who represented …

Seeking to reassure Americans after recent revelations about the intelligence community’s surveillance program, President Obama said Friday in San Jose that “Nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That is not what this program is about.” “What the intelligence community is looking at is phone numbers and duration of calls. They’re not looking at names …

The fact checkers of American politics are probably mourning the impending loss of Minn. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Congress. As the conservative politician announced she will not seek reelection to her House seat in the next election, PolitiFact has released a list of Bachmann’s scores on their “Truth-O-Meter,” the majority of which were either labeled …

As he launches his run for Mayor of New York, former Rep. Anthony Weiner should have no problem overcoming public loathing. This is America. We are a forgiving nation. For the most part. Should history be our guide, Weiner will rise again. (Oh, you knew that hackery was coming sooner or later.) Think about Thomas …

﻿The former U.S. attorney in Phoenix who oversaw the controversial “Fast & Furious’’ gun-trafficking investigation inappropriately leaked a document to Fox News in an apparent effort to denigrate an ATF whistleblower, the Justice Department inspector general concluded Monday. …

There is an afterlife for Bush Pioneers and Rangers, the monikers given to the top bundlers of campaign contributions for George W. Bush. It can be found on 5.2 acres of Dallas real estate on the campus of Southern Methodist University, home of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. A library, museum and think tank, …

Rep. Mike Thompson, a gun-owning Vietnam veteran hand-picked by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi to forge a bipartisan agreement on gun legislation in the House, unveiled a companion background check bill Tuesday that has bipartisan support. That puts pressure on House Republican leaders to bring up gun legislation if it can pass the Senate.The Thompson …